If you want to find Princess Zelda and defeat the hordes of monsters that are once again threatening Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you’re going to need a lot of weapons.
While the hero Link starts out with a handful of slots for the weapons, bows, and shields he’ll be picking up along the journey, more space to hold more gear is an absolute, even with the new ability to fuse weapons together in combos. By increasing the number of slots for weapons, shields, and bows, you’ll have access to a far greater variety of equipment and won’t be forced to give up as many of your favorites. It’s almost as important as upgrading your health and stamina. Here’s what you need to know.
How to upgrade weapon slots
Veterans of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be simultaneously relieved and annoyed to learn that upgrading your gear slots works exactly the same way in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. By exchanging Korok Seeds with the ever-joyful Hestu, you’ll be able to increase the number of slots for your weapon stash, bow stash, and shield stash. It’s important to note that each stash is upgraded independently of the others, so if you upgrade your weapon stash three times, you’ll have three new weapon slots, but the same number of bow and shield slots.
Every time you increase the size of a stash, the number of Korok Seeds needed for the next upgrade will increase. Here’s an early example of how many seeds you can expect to part with:
- First upgrade: 1 Korok Seed
- Second upgrade: 2 Korok Seeds
- Third upgrade: 3 Korok Seeds
- Fourth upgrade: 5 Korok Seeds
Korok Seeds are obtained by finding Koroks. There are hundreds and hundreds of Koroks, and you can find them by reuniting traveling Koroks with their friends, as well as solving myriad puzzles around Hyrule. Finishing Tears of the Kingdom may take over a hundred hours, so you’ll have to put in quite a bit of work to find the Korok Seeds to improve your stash sizes, though you don’t need to find all 900!
Where to find Hestu
Hestu can first be found just northwest of New Serenne Stable, which is itself northwest of Lookout Landing. If you’re starting out from Lookout Landing, you’ll know you’re headed in the right direction when you pass the Carok Bridge. Keep on following the road, and eventually you’ll see Hestu, seemingly fearful. The exact coordinates at which you’ll find him are -1700, 1063, 0196.
Hestu will ask you to take care of some trees ahead of him. These are a new enemy — Walking Trees. They hit hard and are resistant to blunt damage like clubs, but are easy to dodge and can be set on fire or chopped apart with sharp weapons.
After clearing out these mobile evergreens, Hestu will thank you and ask if you want him to upgrade your stash. Following a couple of upgrades, Hestu will announce that he intends to move somewhere lively, and can next be found at Lookout Landing.
Hestu will stay at Lookout Landing until you clear the Gloom from the Great Hyrule Forest (which is no easy undertaking) at which point, he’ll merrily move back in with the rest of the Koroks. He’ll also stay put from this moment on, with no more wandering.
“It's dangerous to go alone!” Check out more of Inverse’s Tears of the Kingdom coverage:
- THE INVERSE REVIEW: Tears of the Kingdom Is the Best Nintendo Switch Game Ever Made
- Tears of the Kingdom’s Best New Mechanic Could Change the Series Forever
- Why Zelda Speedrunners Plan to Take It Slow With Tears of the Kingdom
- Tears of the Kingdom Doubles Down on Breath of the Wild’s Best Inspiration
